Pan Shiyi, a real-estate developer who called for cheaper iPads for the public, was ridiculed with requests for cheaper housing from netizens, including viral mockups made of a new currency in his namesake. Now, he’s busted out his savvy PR chops, by issuing a personal version of his own currency. Well played sir, well played.

Yikes! Nearly 900,000 Shanghai residents (roughly 4 percent of the city’s population) live in firetrap neighborhoods. Sounds to us like an ironclad official reason to raze older buildings.

A Tibetan artist smuggled 20 tons of Tibetan soil into Dharamsala, India, as part of an art installation that would give exiled countrymen the chance to walk on their native soil. Expect a statement about internal soil affairs soon.

It’s been revealed that China Telecom has a special “red list” for Chinese officials, which gives its subscribers the luxury of never receiving spam texts or phantom telemarketing messages.

A new drama from AMC on the building of the American transcontinental railroad includes exactly zero Chinese cast members, a curious fact considering the huge role Chinese laborers played in the railroad’s construction. Seriously guys? Not even a sexy ethnic tomboy who hides the fact that she’s a girl, and then falls in love with an Scots-Irish laborer?

An absolutely massive new feature piece from the New York Times gives you everything you need to know about Chinese online satire in 2011.